“I haven’t spoken to him at all and I won’t speak to him either. And I have no comment on that,” Biden said on the sidelines of a visit to North Carolina in response to a reporter’s question.

Biden’s statement alludes to allegations by Trump and his supporters of abusing the power of his office to get rid of Trump as a political opponent. Biden has repeatedly said in the past that he would not give the Justice Department instructions or seek contact on the matter. Trump is running for the Republican nomination again after losing to Biden in 2020, hoping to run again in 2024. In polls, he is well ahead of his inner-party competitors.

New charges against Trump

Trump announced on Thursday evening (local time) that he had been charged by the Justice Department in the affair about secret documents – the indictment was published on Friday. The federal police FBI had searched Trump’s private home Mar-a-Lago in Florida in August and confiscated various classified information, some with the highest classification level. Because the Republican kept the documents in his private home long after leaving office, he could have committed a criminal offense.

After Trump officially announced his re-election in November, the Justice Department used independent special counsel Jack Smith to outsource the politically sensitive investigation into Trump.